Mischief Night
by Doug2
Summary: An imp makes Halloween at Halliwell Manor a night to remember. Please review.


Mischief Night

For thousands of years it had co-existed with the inhabitants of the Pacific Coast. "It" was a spirit, a nymph, and a mischievous force that was born from the beliefs and religion of the Indians who first entered the valleys and seashore of California sometime after the last Ice Age. It used to play with their children and play tricks on the adults living in harmony with them for centuries. When the white man came the Indians moved on and forgot the old ways, but the spirit stayed. None of the children of the current inhabitants knew about him. For over two hundred years, it has been all alone. He still played tricks on the adults that inhabited what is now known as San Francisco. Then one year he started to sense a great deal of magical activity locally for the first time in centuries. This attraction is how IT found the Charmed Ones.

Prue was very busy working on a new lot of nineteenth century photographs that she had brought home over the weekend. Most of them were fairly common, but a few would bring top dollar at the next Buckland's auction. It had been a very busy month and things would slowdown after the next auction was concluded. Piper and Phoebe came down to have a leisurely Saturday breakfast. Prue had the whole kitchen table covered with these photographs.

"How are we going to have some breakfast with all these old dusty pictures lying around?" complained Phoebe.

"I'll be done in a minute," said an irate Prue who just wanted to finish her work.

Phoebe reached into the refrigerator and poured herself a glass of orange juice. Piper started looking through the cupboard for something to eat. Phoebe almost stepped on Kit and stumbled falling toward the table. Piper in her now almost automatic panic froze the whole glass of orange juice before it landed on the antique photographs.

"Whew," said Phoebe, "that was close! Sorry about that Prue."

Prue was lying sprawled across the pictures trying to save them from the falling orange juice. "Sorry? All you can say is you're sorry? This is my work here that which puts food on the table, which is something you know very little about. Also, if any of these were ruined, it is all of us who would end up paying for them. You have got to be more careful AND more responsible, Phoebe!"

Prue picked up her photographs; the orange juice unfroze and went showering onto the table. Phoebe sheepishly got out a sponge and started to clean up the mess. Prue and Piper went into the living room and sat down.

"That girl is going to give me gray hair yet," said an exasperated Prue.

"Now you're starting to sound like Mom," said Piper. "Don't you think you're being too hard on Phoebe? She is really trying. All she really needs is our occasional approval to let her know she's heading in the right direction."

Prue replied, "It has been a hard week. If I don't keep on top of Phoebe, she will never learn anything."

Piper finished, "Maybe Phoebe is right. You need to loosen up a bit. I'll call you when breakfast is ready." Prue went back to looking at the photographs wondering if there was another way to deal with Phoebe. She was so high-spirited, but she needed some direction to head in. Being a witch was not something that is going to pay the bills.

With that a breath of wind blew the living room curtains in and on it came in the spirit. He had been in many such houses causing mischief, but he still did not really understand their owners. Because of all the magic going on in this house, it had an enormous curiosity about these people. The spirit circled the room twice and entered the first one it came to, Prue. Prue put down the last photograph and started to have a funny upturned smile and an impish gleam in her eye. The possessed Prue got up from the couch and went into the kitchen asking if breakfast going to be ready soon.

Piper said, "It'll be a few minutes, I'm just mixing up the waffles now."

Phoebe had just set the table and went into the living room to read the paper. Prue made all the forks fly back into the drawer and promptly left the room. Piper put on the first batch and looked at the table crying, "Phoebe, I thought you'd set the table."

"All done, Piper" she replied. "Then where are the forks? We need all the silverware for breakfast," said Piper.

Phoebe ran back in and was at a loss to explain what happened. Prue just smiled to herself wondering what else she could do. It would be fun having all this power to play pranks with. All that morning funny things kept happening like the waffle iron getting plugged back in, doors slamming, books falling off the shelf, little items disappearing and then reappearing.

Prue just said that they were just big coincidences, while Phoebe and Piper kept accusing each other of the mischievous acts. Certainly Prue wasn't the kind to pull tricks like that, thought Piper.

By noon, Piper had had enough. "This house must be bewitched or something," she said to Prue. Piper checked out the Book of Shadows and found a spell to de-possess a house. That did not help, the strange occurrences continued.

In the afternoon, the sisters were getting ready for Halloween. This was their second Halloween as witches and they wanted to make it a memorable one. They rigged up a large cauldron for the front hall and each of them had a witch costume. The Manor was made up to look like a haunted house. With all the pranks' occurring it was hard not to believe that the house was haunted. Finally, Piper asked Prue directly if she was responsible. She denied it, but Piper was skeptical. "Maybe being a witch at Halloween is getting to her," she thought.

Throughout half of the night the house creaked and moaned, the shutters slammed and strange winds blew through the house. Phoebe slept soundly, but Piper was really spooked.

"What was some warlock trying to do, scare them out of the house?" wondered Piper.

Prue sat up the night thinking of more pranks to pull. Then she thought of the Book of Shadows and went up to the attic to look for some more harmless pranks. It had never had this much power before. About dawn, strange things started happening in old San Francisco. All the traffic lights on Market Street turned red for hours. The cable cars started to run backwards. The mist came in as usual, but it had strange smells like chocolate, bacon or onions. San Francisco had never had a mischief night like this.

In the morning, Piper was glad the house haunting seemed to have passed. In fact Prue had been giving a lot of thought about what could she do that night. It was Halloween and she had been reading up on the subject. A wicked smile came over Prue's face. Yes, that is what I'll do, she thought. It was perfect for the night and for the occupants of this house. She put the book away and got ready for her new day. Nothing else strange happened at Halliwell Manor until it was time for the trick-or-treaters.

That morning Prue went down to the witch apothecary shop and picked up a few ingredients. At home she mixed up a potion that turned into a greenish powder. All along she hummed a tune that sounded very ancient. That afternoon Piper and Phoebe put on their witch costumes and got all the lights and special effects ready. There was eerie music coming from the stereo and strange shadows and lights swirling up and down the hall. Cobwebs hug from everywhere and the cauldron boiled in the hallway.

"The old manor really looks great, I've never seen it look so spooky, except maybe when I was a kid," said Phoebe. Piper thought both of their costumes looked authentic and was glad that the strange occurrences had stopped. It did lend a certain air to their Halloween festivities, but with all the mortal children coming around she didn't want any trouble. Prue came down the steps looking very satisfied with herself. She, too, had on a witch costume and brought down a big spoon to stir the cauldron with. They were ready for the parade of trick-or-treaters. Prue then came up behind her sisters and sprinkled a little of the green powder over them.

There was a bright green flash and each of them screamed, "Look at you!" Each had been turned into a hideous looking witch with green skin, blacked out teeth, a long crooked nose, a long chin with mole and hair coming out of it and long dark scraggily hair. When they put their hands on their faces they discovered that everything was real. They had been turned into Halloween witches.

Behind them Prue was laughing and laughing. "Why Prue, why?" asked Piper with a voice that sounded like a rusty hinge, "Why would you do this to us?"

"Just to liven up Halloween," she said, "Now you really look the part. Besides, it only lasts until midnight."

Phoebe had another reaction, "You little bitch. I don't know why but...," and she grabbed the rest of the powder and threw it at Prue. Another green flash occurred and there stood the ugliest of the three wicked old witches of Halliwell Manor. She just laughed out loud using a rough cackling voice and started to stir the cauldron humming the same ancient song from earlier.

"What is that you're humming?" said Piper.

"Oh, something I learned from a witch doctor a long time ago," said Prue.

Phoebe said creaking quite a bit, "You're not Prue are you? Where is our sister?"

"Oh, you're looking at her. I'm just borrowing her and her power for a while. I've inhabited this area for centuries. I haven't had this much fun since the last of those who believed in me were driven out by you white men two hundred years ago."

"You're an old Indian spirit? How long to be are you going to hang around?" cackled Phoebe.

"I'll be gone by morning." Prue replied. "Halloween has always been a good night to trick people and have some fun and the night is still young. Now help me stir this cauldron."

Piper just looked at herself hoping what Prue said was true.

Phoebe ran upstairs in tears. "What if someone she knew saw her like this?" she thought.

She went up to the attic to look in Book of Shadows and found the spell Prue had used. There did not seem to be an antidote, but it was only a temporary transformation that was over at midnight. Then she looked up spirit possessions. She did find something to at least drive the spirit out of Prue. Downstairs she went to help stir the cauldron.

While stirring it she recited, "Ancient spirit in the body lo, be gone, be gone, out you go." The spirit felt an irresistible pull that ripped him from the host and sent him from the house.

Prue blinked twice and was about to ask what happened when she looked at herself. "I'm a witch!" she cackled. "Phoebe did you do this? What happened to you two?"

Phoebe, answered, "It was some kind of spirit that took you over. The house has been very creepy since it got here. I don't know where it came from, but I think it's been banished from here. It seemed to think that it was funny for us to look the part tonight. We'll just have to stay this way till midnight."

Prue looked at herself in the mirror. She was all bent over with age and looked like a cross between the Wicked Witch of the West and some old gypsy fortuneteller. "Well, at least I didn't dress up as a werewolf or something worse. Let's have some fun with the kids. I just hope no one we really know show's up at our door," said Prue.

"Amen", said the other two sisters.

And they all cackled together, "He-he-he-he-heh."

"Next year I'm dressing as a PRINCESS," said Phoebe "No, more witch costumes for me."

And their neighborhood had the scariest haunted house they had ever seen. At that was Halloween, Halloween at Halliwell Manor.

THE END


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